Strong gains for U.S., European equity funds

Following a very volatile month in October, stock markets around the world posted strong results in November, helped by the accommodative policies of central banks.

However, Canadian equity funds continued to be hampered by their large exposure to natural resources, which took another hit last month as oil prices prolonged their decline. Seventeen of the 21 Morningstar Canada Fund Indices had positive performance in November.

Read: Winners of the Morningstar Awards are…

Among the best-performing fund indices last month were the ones that track the U.S. Equity and U.S. Small/Mid Cap Equity categories, which increased by 3.5% and 3%, respectively. These results reflected both positive performance on U.S. stock markets and an appreciation of the U.S. dollar, versus its Canadian counterpart during the month.

Read: Natural resources stocks continue to sink

Additional findings include:

• The Morningstar European Equity Fund Index increased by 3.7%;
• International Equity, Global Equity, and Greater China Equity increased of 2.1%, 2.6%, and 2.6%, respectively;
• Precious Metals Equity was the best-performing fund index, with a 5.9% increase;
• The Morningstar Energy Equity Fund Index had a 9.7% decrease, as the price of oil dropped below US$70;
• The Morningstar Natural Resources Equity Fund Index was the second-worst performer, down 5.3%;
• The Morningstar Canadian Equity Fund Index increased by 1.5%; and
• Canadian Focused Equity and Canadian Dividend & Income Equity were up 1.6% and 0.9%, respectively.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.